In order to truly excel as a UI UX designer, you must understand your users’ psychological behavior. But it’s actually seemed daunting for most of the beginners including me. Thanks to the foundational laws that Ravi sir taught me during my UI UX design course. I took their classes onlinefrom ADMEC Multimedia. He provided me a clear idea of how these laws can help me as smart blueprints to build the most acceptable and engaging app or website UIs.
Hello readers, this is Aditi Guleria, a UI UX designer and digital marketer by profession. Today, I’ve brought a short blog for you on two of the most popular principles of UI UX design. These are Hick’s Law and Pareto Principle or 80/20 Rule. They helped me a lot in simplifying my design decisions. These rules are indeed essentials to design smarter not harder.
So, are you ready to start with the first one? Let’s go!
Hick’s Law for UX Design
The name of this law is named after two psychologists William Edmund Hick and Ray Hyman. They explored the relationship between no. of choices and reaction time and discovered the Hick-Hyman Law between 1952-1953.
This law suggests us that our decision-making time is directly relative to the no. of alternatives or choices we have. In simple words, the more choices we have, the longer it takes us to arrive at a decision.
Example, time to choose a particular watch would increase if the number of watches increases logarithmically.
Or if we have a big menu at a restaurant then it usually takes us longer to decide what to order. But in case we have limited options in the menu then we choose quickly without thinking a lot.
Mathematically, Hick-Hyman law or Hick’s Law represents as:
RT = a + b.log2(N)
In this equation, we have,
- RT = reaction time,
- N = number of choices
- Log2 = base-2 logarithm which a mathematical trick. It explains why it doesn’t get too long to decide. Additionally, it also defines that our brain keeps cutting the choices into two halves until it reaches the right one.
- a and b (constants) = just numbers that change according to the complicated choices.
Role of Hick’s Law in UX Design
In UX, Hick’s law works as a psychological method to helps designers in understanding how much time is required for users to make their decision over available choices or options.
Hick’s law reminds us to keep the design simple, clean, and focused so that the users who came to use the app features can easily make actions. If we show more options on a screen that it means it takes users more time to click what they want. So, keep the design simple and focused on users’ needs.
Rules of thumb for Hick’s Law
Some rules are there to follow for all designer under this law:
- Limits in option: The user’s get cofused easily if there are many choices in the landing page. Therefore when designing a screen or page, designers should know that the choices or options given should be in limit. Example, In the landing page of the website, there should be 3-5 buttons and other links should go to ‘more’ option.
- Items in groups: The page is considered to be more usable and readable when the related items are in their separate groups. Example, different courses are together in course section.
- Search and filters: Sometimes the user gets stuck because they can’t find what they need in group of groups. Hence it is crucial that important features like search or filters are available throughout the application or webpage.
Read more on Hicks Law for further understanding.
Pareto Principle or 80-20 Rule of UX Design
This comes among world’s most popular principles. The Pareto law got its name from an Italian economist Mr. Vilfredo Pareto. In 1906, he discovered that from the total wealth and land of the Italy, 80% of it was owned by 20% of the citizens.
Many of us have followed this Pareto Principle which is also known as the 80-20 rule in our life. This law is helpful for managing our time and life together. The core idea behind this principle is that with 20% of the efforts we can generate 80% of the output. It means with small fraction of causes we can produce majority of effects.
This principle asks us to recognize the most productive tasks that lead us to success.
Example: In an education institute like ADMEC Multimedia, 80% of admissions come from 20% of the courses like UI UX, Digital Marketing, Textile Design, etc.
By following this principle in UI UX, designers can easily prioritize what features to add in the app or website with proper content strategy.
Read more on the role of Pareto Principle or 80/20 Rule in UX Designin one of our blogs.
Rules of Thumb for Pareto Principle
- Find core feature: While making an app if we can focus on critical 20% of work then it will be enough to deliver 80% of user value.
- Use data to think about decisions: Analyze the gathered data like clicks, share, view, etc. to find top 20% of the task completed by the users. This will help us to make decisions further.
- Testing: To conduct testing in the product it is beneficial to conduct the test on top 20% of features in the starting. This way, we can get a closer idea about the condition of that product.
Conclusion on Essentials Laws of UX Design
In the end, we can clearly see that both the Hick’s law and Parato Principle are essential methods to follow in UI UX. These rules help designers like us to create efficient, clear, and user-friendly interface. Together they help the us to prioritize what is necessary for the users and overcome the use of complex features.
If you want learn the usage of these principles strategically from experts then you must plan for professional courses in UI UX design from ADMEC. I’m sure, you’ll get best results like I did.
